What Lies in the Shadow
by ZeonChar
Summary: The events immediately following "Across the Sea". Jacob has to deal with the loss of his Mother and Brother as well as figuring out how to be the new protector of the island. Who is the Man in Black?
1. Chapter 1

Jacob stumbled through the jungle, palm fronds brushing his face in the waking moonlight. The dirt felt cold beneath his bare feet as he trudged towards the beach. He crashed through the dense foliage, not caring how much noise he made as it scraped his body, leaving raw red lines against his skin. Salty tears stung the cuts on his face and when he tried to wipe them away with his dirty hands they burned even more. He clutched a wooden box tightly under one arm as the other arm pushed away the brush in front of him. Jacob could hear the crashing waves nearing ever closer as he scrambled over rocky mounds.

Finally, he exploded through the wood line and felt his feet touch the soft sand. Jacob sunk down to his knees, grasping the wooden box close to his chest with both arms. Tears began to pour freely now down his cheeks and a few dropped from his face to stain the wooden box, the warm liquid seeping into the darkened wood.

_I'm alone now, _Jacob though. _I've lost both of them. _

His moans became louder and racked his body with spasms. The waves deafened the sounds of his sobs and he let them come freely, running his hand through his short, thick blonde hair. The moon was full this night and the light reflected off of his streaked face.

_I want to give it back, _Jacob thought_. Please, I want to give it back. _If he knew accepting his new role would lead to the deaths of the two people he loved the most in this world, he never would have taken it. That is what he told himself, at least. But deep inside he knew that things would have turned out this way no matter what he had chosen. How long was he condemned now to this island? How long did he have to protect it, never growing old? How long would his life of solitude and misery last, without anyone else to share in it?

_I'm the worst of all, _he thought. _I killed my brother, even when he begged me to stop. I didn't know what would happen to him! I was so angry! _He screamed inside of his head. Instead it came out as a choked groan, his chest shaking from convulsions.

_I've done this to myself; I deserve this, _he told himself, sinking his face into his hands, the box coming to rest on his lap.

The trees behind him rustled and for a moment, Jacob thought it was the wind, until he realized there was none. He looked over his shoulder cautiously, tears blurring his vision and he saw a figure standing beneath the palms. Terror gripped his heart and he felt his body becoming weak, his mouth instantly dried and his throat clenched, no longer admitting the misty ocean air. Jacob felt his body reacting, spinning from the place where he was sitting, the box dropped with a soft thud into the sand. He stood now, paralyzed in one spot, the full moon at his back.

Jacob couldn't speak. The words froze in his throat as his mind raced with a million possibilities. He dismissed them all quickly, realizing none of them to be true. His eyes were glued to the figure that just stood there looking at him with a gaze that chilled his soul. The figure looked down at the box and then back up at Jacob. Suddenly, the figure melted into the forest behind him, just as swiftly as he had came.

Jacob didn't know how long he stood there, his eyes searching the forest, unable to move from where he stood.

_I'm losing it, _he gasped.

Jacob was finally able to bring his hands up to his face and press his fingers to his eyes.

_Mother, what have you done to me? Am I to be haunted on this island for my sins for all eternity?_

His breath came more deeply now and filled his chest with a calming feeling. He was exhausted; he realized and felt himself move slowly through the wood line. His tears had solidified on his face now and he could feel them crack on his skin. His despair still clung at his heart, but he had no more tears left to cry. He was truly an empty man now.

He entered the cave which for his whole life had been his home and gazed down at the two bodies composed neatly on the floor. Sadness overwhelmed him once again and he knelt down next to the body of his brother, hand brushing across the dead cheek. Some warmness still lingered there and he collapsed to the packed dirt floor, his body curling next to that of the deceased. His arm snaked under the limp appendage and his face pressed into the dark cloth. His scent still persisted. This would be the last night he would ever sleep in this cave for as long as he lived on the island. Darkness overtook him and he drifted into a world where pain and death didn't exist.

"How precious," a voice said, waking Jacob from the deep sleep.

Jacob started to drift back into reality as golden sunlight seeped through the opening of the cave. It was morning now and his mind began to start turning as he thought of what he needed to accomplish that day. His brother was leaning over a couple feet away, watching Jacob wake.

_We'll go check the fish traps and see if we caught some breakfast and cook mother a nice meal. I need to start a small fire before I head down to the beach so it is ready by the time we get back. Then we'll go collect hemp from the garden and I can start weaving some new pants._

This all flitted through Jacob's mind in an instant as he lingered in the realm of lucidity. He was gazing into his brother's face, when he glanced down at the dead hand lying over him. Reality came crashing back suddenly like a punch to the stomach which forced all the breath from his body. Jacob flung the dead appendage away and leapt us, his balance still poor and his back hitting the wall of the cave. He glanced down at the body in which he had just been curled against and felt sick. The tone of the skin was pallid in the morning light and the lips and fingernails a bluish-grey. He felt his knees becoming weak and his stomach churned with nausea.

"You're not looking too well, Jacob," the man who looked like his brother said, cocking his head with false sincerity. He grinned with a half-sneer at the blonde man.

Jacob wobbled against the cave wall, opening his mouth and then closing it again, the back of his hand came to brush across his mouth, unsure of what to say or how to even begin.

"Who… who are you?" Jacob said in monotone, looking up now, the color drained from his face. Jacob couldn't help but notice how alive the man before him looked compared to the waxy body lying on the floor.

"Jacob, I'm disappointed in you." The man frowned and stood up fully now, crossing his hands in front of his body, his height towering over Jacob.

_His eyes are the same shade of pale blue. _

Jacob knew those eyes better than anyone else in existence. He had gazed into them for many hours upon end as the two played their game from the wooden box; the same wooden box which now lay half-buried in the sand at the beach.

"What, too scared to sleep alone in the dark, Jacob?" The other man sneered. "I always thought mother coddled you too much, but now I can see what a big baby she has really made out of you."

The other man was jibing him, his face giving away the contempt he really seemed to feel for Jacob in that moment. Jacob was absolutely stunned, unable to speak and stood there, his mouth agape.

"If you wanted to cuddle, all you had to do was ask."

The other man was enjoying this; verbally tearing him down.

"I mean, it probably beats sleeping with dead bodies."

"How dare you," Jacob finally had the nerve to speak aloud and collecting his wits he stood up straighter against the wall. "How dare you pretend to be my brother?"

The other man chuckled. He had the same day's growth of whiskers that his brother always liked to keep; that scraggly, weathered look that both men liked to wear while leading their lives in a tropical jungle. Jacob often marveled at how the two, supposedly twins, were so different alike, both in looks, and in mannerisms. His brother was bold and brash, he was quiet and contemplative. His brother said what he thought out loud, and Jacob kept his thoughts to himself.

Jacob's memories of his brother angered him as he was reminded of the imposter which stood before him now, daring to use this visage to taunt him.

"I don't know who, or even what you are, but I won't allow you to desecrate the memory of my brother."

The other man started to laugh, as if he knew a secret, a deep, dark, terrible secret that no one else but he knew.

This angered Jacob even more. "I fail to see what is so amusing to you!"

The other man's smile suddenly disappeared and his face became dark. "Anger doesn't suit you, Jacob. Just look what happens when you become angry…" the man gestured to the two bodies on the floor, pausing in his speech for a moment, "…people die."

Jacob felt his strength returning even if the blood in his veins was boiling with anger and he stood now, pushing himself away from the wall.

"You're the murdered," Jacob said boldly, these feelings rushing up from inside him. The anger, pain, and confusion came back to him as a continuation of the events the night before.

The other man held his gaze maliciously, as if by staring alone he could kill someone without even touching them.

Jacob continued to release everything he had wanted to say last night, and it came spilling forth from him, unbridled, like a dam, burst and unrelenting.

"You murdered the one who gave us life, a home, hope… each other." The anguish in his voice was palpable.

"She wasn't our mother!" The other man broke his silence and shouted, his icy exterior starting to wane, anger boiling to the surface now.

"Even if she wasn't our real mother, she loved us, she loved you, and you murdered her for it!" Jacob was shouting, something he so rarely ever did in his life.

The veins in the other man's neck began to bulge.

"She wanted to trap us on this island forever!" The other man threw his arms out, motioning at the walls around them. "What kind of life is that? We were to be caged like animals! That isn't love!" He screamed. "We were her pets… her playthings!"

"She gave you more than any person could ever want in life! I was never her choice… you were her favorite. You we're the one she loved the most!" Jacob could feel his eyes stinging as tears began to well up inside of them.

"She was using us, Jacob! She had enough of this island and wanted to leave, but in order to do that, she had to have one of us take over for her! That was our only purpose in her life! She didn't know what love meant. She never had any of that inside of her!"

"You're wrong," Jacob whispered, "like you have always been wrong about humans. Love exists; it existed in her! She may not have been perfect, but I saw the good in her soul and you took that away, you took that away from me!" Jacob gestured to himself. "I loved her and you destroyed her because I loved her! You're a monster!" Jacob screamed now.

"If I'm a monster, it's only because you made me this way," the other man spoke, calmly now.

Jacob knew this to be true and his heart sunk; this man, this thing, which stood before him. This was of his making. Now he had to take care of it. He had to clean up his mess and fix his mistake. That would be his first job on the island. Maybe that would be his job for as long as he existed. He didn't care. He had a purpose. He had promised his mother at least that much.

Jacob, who had been slumped over at the realization suddenly stood again, a conviction coming to his demeanor and confidence washing over him.

"I make the rules now."

He saw the other man's eye twitch and Jacob could see the rage beneath the surface. The lips of the other man tightened together, going white as the blood drained from them. His gaze bore into Jacob for what seemed like eternity. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but paused and then finally said, "I hate you, Jacob." Every word was enunciated with venom, malice, and spite.

Jacob could feel the rage seeping through the other man's body towards him. It desperately wanted to cling to him and stick in his throat and nostrils. It wanted to pull at his hair and creep into his eyeballs and tear them out.

As Jacob stared into the icy blue eyes, he could imagine this malevolence seeping out, begging to kill him; this black aura, like a black smoke that fueled the other man's rage which could only come deep from within his soul. It was literally, seeping out of his eyes now, which had rolled back into his head. Jacob blinked as if he wasn't sure what he was seeing.

The other man's mouth opened as if to vomit and he retched up blackness, smoke, evil. Jacob was horrified and repulsed. He felt himself shrinking away, his back hitting the wall – a dead end. The smoke started to seep from his fingernails now, as if the nails were being pried off from underneath. The body convulsed, unnaturally, sickening pops and rips came to Jacob's ears as the blackness clawed its way out. The ears seeped and the tongue hung out as if useless. From underneath the clothes it came, from every orifice and pore in the body. It stripped away the man that once was and in its place was pure hate.

The blackness flew at Jacob and he felt himself falling to the ground. Jacob's eyed were glued open in horror and shock as the swirling mass overtook him. But it did not touch him. It hovered – inches from his body, a deafening clacking sound in Jacob's ears. He could feel every hair on his body stand on end as if the air was conducing massive amounts of electricity. The dirt in the ground even seemed to crackle with the energy that was all around him.

It seemed like a lifetime that he was frozen there, in that massive, swirling vortex, pure energy crackling in his face and blinding his eyes. Then it was gone, retreating through the cave mouth. Jacob, who was momentarily blinded by the thing, lay shivering, his body covered entirely in sweat. When he had enough strength to move, he rolled over, and threw up on the floor of the cave. His mother's words echoed in his ears from the day when they were both boys, taken to the heart of the island for the first time and Jacob knew with undying certainty.

_It was his… it was him… it was him._


	2. Chapter 2

Jacob sat alone atop a log on the beach. He gazed out at the crashing waves breaking the shore before him. It was mid-day, the sun high in the sky and he looked down at his skin, tanned from many days such as this one. He liked staring out at the ocean, getting lost in his own thoughts. The ocean made everything seem so simple, it made life seem so simple. But now, life was different, at least for him and one other occupant on the island. Was he even human? He didn't know. Mother insisted that he wasn't and that was distinctly possible.

Jacob gravitated towards one place on the island; it was a large statue that stood erect upon the shoreline. A monster, it seemed, perhaps a warning to never set foot upon this island, for to do so would invite certain doom. That Jacob knew as much. There had been others upon the island, he had watched them before when his brother went to live with them, but now they were all dead, his mother and brother too. The terrible visage glancing out at the ocean seemed very appropriate; its features contorted into a twisted grin. Jacob wasn't scared. He knew that he no longer had to be scared of anything.

Jacob found a wooden door leading into the base of the statue beneath one of the feet. When he pushed on it to enter he found it unlocked and cool air invited him from within. He shouldn't have been surprised. Any sane person on the island would have avoided this statue, which is why he knew that he must now make this his home. He didn't belong with other people and they didn't belong with him. He dropped his torch into the center fire circle, the room suddenly illuminating from the soft orange glow. He ran his palms across the damp, cool walls as he circled the room. Pictographs covered the wall, a language he was familiar with, and a language his mother had taught him and his brother as children. "Taweret," Jacob whispered, reading one of the inscriptions out loud. This would do.

Now, he sat alone outside the statue as the tumultuous ocean relentlessly battered itself against the sandy shore. Jacob knew every inch of this island as if it were his own soul. Indeed, his soul was now bound inexorably with the island's own. When he looked out across the ocean, he could hear soft whispers in his ears and it seemed as if life had opened up to him; knowledge of the world was now in his grasp. Jacob knew other places existed, far away from here. One day he might have to travel to them, but that time was not now, nor was that time soon. He was isolated from the rest of the world and he was fine with that. For now, he would just observe.

So loud were the waves and so deep was Jacob's reverie, that he was unaware of the figure which approached him now. The figure walked haltingly through the sand, unable to catch its balance. His peripheral vision caught the figure when it was a couple paces away and Jacob turned his head, his meditation broken. She was wearing a plain brown cloth dress, tied at the waist with a rope. Her hair was tied loosely at the back of her head with a leather strap, the brown strands fell into her face, which was smudged with dirt and streaked from tears. Blue eyes peered out at him, desperately, searchingly.

She fell down into the sand when she was right next to him, one hand grasping at the log and the other on his knee. Jacob was taken aback and felt himself retreating from her.

"Please…" she choked, barely able to get the words out. "Please help me."

Jacob was unsure of what to say and continued to look at her with his usual quiet gaze. He noticed that her feet were bare and granules of sand clung to them like pearls in the deep. Tears dripped from the tip of her nose and landed in the sand by his feet, she lowered her head for a moment, still clutching at the cloth above his knee. He wanted to shove her hand away, but he forced himself to keep from doing so.

She looked up at him, pleadingly, forlorn. "Everything is gone… everyone is gone. I have nothing left. Please, you have to help me."

Some recognition ignited in Jacob and he realized that she must have been from the settlement far away from here on the other side of the island, the one that went up in smoke and ashes. How long had she traveled to get here? How long had she desperately searched for something, for someone? She suddenly seemed feeble to him, ragged and bare. What did he feel? Was it pity for her? He didn't think so.

"I'm sorry, I can't help you," he said calmly, turning back towards the ocean.

She choked, as if assaulted and he saw her knuckles going white against the pale material of his clothing.

"I don't know what to do," she said. "I don't know where to go!"

"Go back where you came from," Jacob told her, continuing to stare at the water.

Her hand dropped from him, defeated. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed into them, her shoulders heaving from held-back tears. The hair that fell across her face and hands was the same color as his mother's.

Suddenly Jacob was hit with a memory from long ago. He was picking mangos with his mother and he asked her about the others on the island. This was after Jacob and his brother had discovered their presence.

"If they are so dangerous," Jacob asked her, "why don't we make them just go away?"

His mother sighed with a smile on her face and looked down at him, one hand brushing the hair from his eyes, "because we have compassion, Jacob."

"And they do not?" Jacob asked her, confused.

She looked at him with the kind of utter patience that only a mother could possess. "They have forgotten what compassion is. That is what makes them human and us, not. We must never forget our compassion."

Jacob stared at this woman before him now, sobbing into her hands and he brought a finger up to brush against the back of her hand. She looked up at him, tears glistening on her eyelashes, a hopeful expression pleading at him and her eyes wide and full of fear.

"Will you come with me?" Jacob asked.

"Yes," she replied breathlessly, clasping her hands together, relief tinging her features. "Yes."

Jacob stood now and the woman used to log to bring herself to her feet. She followed Jacob as he turned silently and walked towards the jungle. The sound of waves receded with each step and the woman noticed that Jacob made no sound when walking over the leaves and underbrush. Sunlight peeked through the canopy and illuminated Jacob when it hit certain parts of his body, his hair glowing with a faint golden color.

Jacob and the woman eventually came to a small clearing where stones were arranged into a fire pit and a tent was strung, made from animal hides and held down by sinew rope. Carved wooden poles stuck out of the ground and suspended another wooden pole which held a dangling woven. The stump of a log rested by the fire, which was now just glowing coals and more baskets sat around, lined up in a circle. Jacob had carried only a few items with him from the caves that were once his home and set them up here in this clearing. Eventually, he would move all of this into the base of the statue.

The woman stood by the edge of the camp and watched as Jacob walked over to the strung basket and retrieved a fish from it. Jacob didn't look at her as he walked towards the fire and placed the fish upon a large stone resting nearby. He reached down and pulled a woven handle from the edge of the fire where a simple blade had been submerged. It glowed dully from the steady heat of the fire and Jacob began to fillet the fish with it, meticulously removing the guts and cutting away perfect chunks. He now lay the fillets down with his knife onto a glowing stone in the middle of the fire. The rest of the fish he swept into a palm leaf and twisted it up, returning the remnants to the basket to be used later as lure.

She was still standing at the edge of the camp, watching Jacob work when he turned around from the basket and looked at her finally. Jacob motioned towards the log, "sit, please."

The woman walked reluctantly towards the fire and sat on the smooth log. Jacob picked up one of the baskets and carried it near her and laid it down. Jacob squatted down and opened the lid of the basket. He retrieved a coconut cup filled to the brim with cool, clear water and handed it to her. She was staring at his eyes as he handed her the cup.

"What's your name?" she asked him.

"Jacob."

She gulped the water down quickly, as if overcome by a terrible thirst and handed him back the coconut shell. Water dribbled from her lips and Jacob watched as she licked the wetness from her lips with her tongue.

"What's yours?" He asked.

"Margaret."

Jacob nodded and filled the coconut again. This time he took a soft piece of animal skin from nearby and dipped it in the cup, the skin soaking in the moisture. He held the piece of skin up to her cheek and slowly brushed it across, removing the dirt which had been streaked there. She continued to stare into his deep blue eyes. Her hand came up to his and brushed it momentarily as she took the skin from him to finish cleaning her face. He handed her the coconut shell and rose, looking down on her momentarily before turning to go about other business.

Margaret cleaned her face and hands completely while watching Jacob as he went to and from the small clearing, carrying wood for the fire and other materials for which he could fashion items. She brought the cloth to her neck, the cool water soothing and let it trace down to the opening of her bosom. She continued to watch him. Jacob came over to the fire and removed the fish, now fully cooked and placed the fillets upon a large leaf, handing it to her silently. She ate as he continued to go about his work. He spoke no words and she dared not ask him a thing.

The sun started to lower in the sky and it was now coming in the clearing at an angle, casting shadows across most of the camp. Jacob was occupied with building a loom so he could continue his work of making clothes and blankets. He found work to be peaceful and meditative. He had been doing it all of his life. He found satisfaction out of getting things done and doing them right. He had a lot of skill and knew how to live off of the land. His mother had taught him everything he needed to know. It was the only way he knew how to live.

He had fashioned the poles to the right length and dimensions. Now he had to attach them with woven sinew, which he knotted to be unbreakable. He had been working for a long time and had completely forgotten about the other person in his camp, so it took him by surprise when a pair of hands came from under his arms to wrap around his chest. He felt the weight of the body behind him and was momentarily stunned.

He turned around slowly and the hands which had once been grasping his chest slackened, allowing him movement. Margaret stood in front of him, her hands resting on his lower back, pulling him softly but firmly into her own body. Her face was dangerously close to his and her eyes were locked, staring back into his. He became aware in this moment how small and fragile she seemed. He could snap her neck if he wanted to. He could shove her off and throw her on the ground. But he did none of that.

Something occurred to him, something he had known because he had watched the others for so long. She wanted to mate with him.

He had come across the others many times while trekking silently through the jungle, their soft moans reaching his ears through the coverage of leaves and brush. The first time he had seen this, he was confused and didn't know what to think. He watched with wide eyes as the bodies writhed in the soft glow of the forest underbrush. Mouths open, gasping for air, hands clawing at one another; the hue of the skin coloring with the increase of blood and the wetness that both bodies seemed to produce. One mouth pressed to another and the frantic quickening of their pace until finally the bodies clenched together, eyes tightening, faces giving off an expression of pure joy, or horror, he wasn't sure which. Then the collapse as both bodies lay, arms and legs intertwined, chests heaving and finally coming to calm moments later.

Jacob had asked his mother what it meant and she told him that it was the way the others were able to procreate, but that he would never have to worry about that. For him, neither death nor procreation would ever be a concern.

"Is that how my brother and I came to be?" He asked. But she just looked at him with a smile, full of knowledge but silent. The kind of look that told him he already knew all he needed to know.

Later, when his brother had joined the other people on the island, Jacob asked him about it.

"You mean sex?" his brother had clarified.

Jacob wanted to know if by joining the others it meant that his brother was able to procreate with them. It took a long time for Jacob to realize that none of the others ever bore children. Jacob's brother once told him that they came from the others. Did that mean they were really human? If they were human, could they partake of human activities?

His brother chuckled at him, "Jacob, you're living your life too sheltered. You need to get out there in the world and experience! If it was up to mother, you would never learn anything besides what she taught you. Jacob, come join me, please!"

But Jacob was always held back by uncertainty. As much as he loved his brother and as much as he wanted to be with him, something always held him back. He had a duty to mother, she knew everything, didn't she? She knew what was best for him and she would never do anything to hurt him. His brother saw that look in his eye every time. The look that said Jacob would never leave, but he would never stop asking him to come with him.

One time, while walking through the forest, his brother had asked Jacob if he wanted to try it. He said that he knew a beautiful woman who would be willing to show Jacob everything she knew. But Jacob was uncertain. He still didn't know if it could even work for him.

"Can it only work between a man and a woman?" Jacob asked.

"Well, procreation, yes," his brother had said, "Although many people partake just for the pleasure of it. I suppose that part of it could work between anyone." His brother had laughed slapping Jacob on the shoulder.

"Have you done it?" Jacob asked his brother. "What is it like?"

"Jacob," he sighed, "you'll just have to see for yourself."

Jacob supposed that was his brother's way of coaxing him, but it didn't work. He wondered often, at first, especially while watching lovers lay their souls naked and bare under the lush greenery, but over the years his interest seemed to wane. He no longer sat and stared in awe, amazed at the way two people responded to one another; their private act, so intimate and yet so public. Jacob though that one must have to give up so much of themselves in order for it to work. That is what scared him, the thought of losing himself to another.

Now this woman was here before him, pressed into his body. He was acutely aware of how close they were, his breaths come more frequently, his body responding in ways he never imagined possible. She looked at him in a way that he recognized was reserved for two people, alone, ready and willing to give themselves to each other. He was scared, yet jubilant at the same time. It still wasn't too late to turn back.

_No! _He scolded himself.

Margaret pushed him backwards towards his tent, her mouth slightly open and her lips ready and inviting. They moved through the outer flaps and she pushed him down firmly on top of the furs that lined the floor. Jacob was propped up on his elbows, his heart beating rapidly. Margaret straddled him, coming to rest on his pelvis. The first thing she did was run a small, delicate hand under his shirt. Her soft flesh worked its way up through the hair on his chest, fingers brushing against his nipple. The other hand was under his shirt now and she was pulling it off over his head. He was lying back fully and he couldn't keep his eyes from her round, inviting mouth.

As if reading his mind, she lowered her body onto his and brought her sweet lips down to his face. The kiss was intoxicating and he felt dizzy, his head swimming. Her tongue flicked across his lips and then swirled in his mouth, dancing with his own tongue. Her hand ran through his thick golden hair the other one ran over the bare muscles of his arm, feeling every ripple beneath his skin.

Then she brought a hand up to her shoulder and slipped the fabric off, revealing bare skin and a breast spilling out from beneath the material. He thought how beautiful it looked and brought his hand up to touch it. His fingers seemed rough against her soft skin and he looked weathered, while it seemed as if her breast had never seen sunlight. His fingertip ran across the nipple and it stiffened beneath his touch, which elicited a moan from her. He was amazed that he could cause pleasure in her, was amazed that everything he had previously thought was wrong. In the back of his mind he wondered if it was really possible to procreate and have a family. With some longing, he thought of a life that could have been.

She was slipping the other arm out of her dress now and the fabric came to rest around her hips. She sat back on him and reached behind her head, pulling the string which kept her hair coiled, now released and spilling magnificently around her shoulders. He was entranced at the raw power of her beauty and swallowed hard, his hands running from her hips and up her sides to cup both breasts

She stood now, his hands still reaching in the air towards her and she forced the dress down from her hips and let the fabric pool around her feet, before stepping out from it. Jacob had seen naked women before, but never like this; never one so willing to give herself to him fully. He noticed the slickness between her legs and suddenly thought of what they were about to do. His hand went to his penis, engorged fully; it was ready for her, at his amazement. Just his hand rubbing the constricting cloth across his penis caused shivering waves of pleasure. She smiled down at him.

Margaret bent down now, those skilled hands tugging the fabric from his body. When he was naked, he suddenly felt cold, although his body burned hotly. She crawled on top of him, the warmth welcoming and kissed his neck, her soft lips on top of his stubble. His hand traced across her back and down to her buttocks, as he traced the roundness of each. He could feel his penis pressing into her skin now, wanting, hungering and she rubbed herself against him, causing him to moan softly.

He wanted to take her now; the wait was unbearable, agonizing. She could see the lust burning in his eyes, which now had changed color. They were sharper and deeper somehow. She slipped herself on top of him and she could feel his hands grip her sides. His head stretched back, eyes closing in ecstasy as she rode up and down, her juices slick and wet, spilling out from her to cover his skin. Jacob moaned even louder and she could feel him moving with her body, his eyes wide now, locked onto hers. His hand reached out and rested behind her neck, pulling her in close to him. She could feel his heart beating maddeningly inside of his chest and they kissed sloppily, hangs groping at each other.

A couple more strokes and she cried out, her face nestled into his neck and he quickened, grasping her body close to his. He felt his body clench up; his toes seizing, his arms tightening around her, needing to be deeper and deeper inside of her. The pleasure and pressure was intense as he came, eyes closing tight, driving deep inside of her. His hand was wrapped around her hair, a couple more strokes, and he collapsed in sweat on top of the furs. He noticed that his skin had taken on a shade of pink as well as her body, which was curled up on top of him.

Jacob lolled off, incoherent, his mind blank of any thought. His breathing became steadier and his hands dropped to his sides. Her face was nestled into his chest, arms around his torso and he felt calm and at peace. Nothing can go wrong, he thought with complete serenity before he drifted off to sleep.

Jacob awoke with a start, something wasn't right. Margaret was straddled on top of him, still naked. His brother's dagger was in her hand, the dagger he brought with him from the caves. Her face was completely different now. Gone was the beauty and timidity which had drawn him into her. Now, it was replaced with something else: rage and loathing. Her eyes burned with fire, they no longer looked like her eyes. She brought the dagger down swiftly to the middle of his chest where his heart laid beating and pressed the cold steel into his breast. He inhaled sharply as the blade cut his skin and he could feel his blood running from where the tip cut into his flesh. But she did not plunge it deeper. The hand holding the dagger strained, her knuckles whitening, nails cutting into her skin. A sound of pure desperation escaped from her lips, he could see her whole arm straining now up to the tendons in her neck. She seemed to be fighting against something, invisible to the both of them. His eyes were wide, flung open, helpless, wondering if he really could die.

It seemed like eternity they stayed this way, neither of them moving. Margaret seemed to be getting wearier. Her face was distorted now and he was shocked at how much she had changed.

Jumping up from him, she screamed, and flung the dagger. It bounced off the tent wall helplessly. She retreated through the flap. He sat up at once, hand going to his heart where blood was smeared. He threw on his clothes as fast as he could and burst through the tent. She was nowhere to be seen in the clearing. He knew the direction of her village and took off for it immediately. Jacob crashed through trees and thick foliage, running as fast as his feet could take him. His heart pounded maddeningly within his chest.

He had run half way across the island by the time he finally arrived. The huts which once stood in the open air were shells of their former selves, burnt and desecrated. Bodies lay everywhere, some wounds such as snapped necks and limbs apparent, some not. Jacob stumbled desperately through the bodies, searching for her. If she were to come anywhere, he thought, she would come here. He searched the burnt huts over and over, under every beam and log, but found nothing. He finally came to rest in what once was the village center, completely exhausted. He squinted in the bright light of sunset and looked out over the ocean where the sun was going down beneath the horizon.

That's when he saw it out of the corner of his eyes. The body on the ground with the long brown hair and the simple dress wrapped with a cord at the waist. The pale hands were clenched at the dirt in the ground and the bare feet were muddy. Jacob approached the body slowly, with a rising sense of dread. His hand reached out to her shoulder and gripped it, turning her over to face him. Lifeless blue eyes gazed back at him, the skin pale and dull. Jacob stumbled backwards, bumping up against the crumbled town well. The sun was fading and cast a fiery glow over the ruins of both man and building. It was a long time before Jacob found a shovel in the dark and began to dig.


	3. Chapter 3

Jacob lay reclined on the beach, a bottle of wine sat open next to his left hand. An hour earlier, the wine bottle had been full, now the crimson liquid filled only half of the glass.

Jacob stared out past his bare feet to the blue fury before him. He wondered how it was possible for people to travel across such danger and uncertainty to come to be here. But it was possible, because other people had come here. According to his brother, they both had come here from somewhere else. To Jacob's dismay, the epiphany which followed from accepting the mantle of protector of the island didn't include any insight into his origins. Jacob knew he could bring others to the island again if he wanted to. In his heart, he felt something pull at him, a feeling which seemed to accompany his days since what he liked to refer to as "the incident". There was none other left on the island, except for him and one other. That was the ideal scenario, wasn't it? If no one were on the island, there would be no one to try to steal the heart of the island. But someone was trying to steal it, that is, if he could ever find it. The problem was that he would have to come through Jacob first and this person was very determined to do so.

Jacob raised the glass to his lips and let the warm liquid run into his throat. A breeze blew across his loose clothes and Jacob started to close his eyes, shielding them from the sun. He liked the feeling of sand on his bare feet, and dug them deep into sand before him, feeling each granule slip through his toes. The incessant roar of the ocean before him seemed as if a calming melody. It always came in the same rhythm, like the beating of his heart, which he could feel inside of his chest. It proved to him how very alive he was; how very alone he was.

Jacob drifted off slowly, the sun warming his skin and clothes and Jacob's hand began to slide down from where it held the wine bottle at its neck. Jacob lay like that for a good amount of time before a shadow darkened across him. He blinked his eyes open wearily, fighting back the daze which preempted this occasion. A figure dressed in dark clothes stood atop him, blocking the sunlight from his face.

Jacob reached out to the bottle again and raised it to his lips, which now felt parched.

"Do you want some?" He had asked the figure after taking a swig, holding the bottle out in front of him.

The figure didn't answer; it just stood in front of Jacob, eyes locked on him.

"You're blocking the sun," Jacob said lazily, motioning the figure with his hand, dropping his head back into the sand.

The figure finally moved, taking a seat in the sand next to Jacob. Minutes went by before either of them spoke again.

"Why are you here?" Jacob asked in a serious tone.

"That's the eternal question, isn't it?" The figure replied, glancing over at Jacob before returning his gaze to the ocean.

"Not for me," Jacob said stubbornly. "I know exactly why I am here."

"You think you know why you are here," the figure corrected him.

"Please," Jacob said dismissively, pressing his finger into the space between his eyes, "enlighten me."

But the figure didn't answer; it just stared out into the ocean. Jacob continued to drink the wine. The bottle was only a third full now.

"I want to leave this place," it finally spoke, but Jacob didn't answer him. The figure turned to look at Jacob in the face. "Please, Jacob, let me leave."

"You're strangely diplomatic today," Jacob said sighing. He closed his eyes against the sun, his finger running across the lip of the bottle. The figure continued to look at Jacob, irritation playing at his face.

"Jacob, you don't have to do this," it said. "You think you have to be here to protect this place," the figure motioned its hands outwards, "but you don't. You can leave too. Come with me, Jacob. Let's leave this place together." The figure sounded almost pleading.

Jacob stayed silent for quite some time as if thinking over the proposal. His blue eyes gazed lazily out into the ocean, his face serious. Jacob ran a hand through the stubble on his cheek. The collar on Jacob's shirt shifted slightly in the wind, the breeze blowing it open.

"I promised mother I would look after this place," Jacob said finally.

"That woman was crazy!" The figure exclaimed in anger.

"Is that why you killed her?" Jacob rolled his head over to look at the figure for the first time, his blue eyes impassive.

The figure's face betrayed emotion, anger, irritation, and confusion.

"This is exactly what she wanted," the figure said through gritted teeth, its finger pointed at Jacob. "She wanted to punish me for trying to leave here, for trying to leave her! Now she's made this game of hers and she's gotten you to play along too. She told you that you were the special protector of the island!" The figure motioned wildly. "She told you that I could never leave! She's convinced you that there's something here to protect!" The figure was shouting at Jacob now. "There's nothing here to protect!"

Jacob's face betrayed no emotion.

"So what is it to be, then?" The figure continued. "The eternal struggle of brother against brother? Neither one able to die? Stuck forever on a magical island?

"You're not my brother," Jacob said in denial, rubbing his open palm across his face. "My brother died back in that waterfall." He took another sip from the bottle.

"You're a fool, Jacob." He said. "She is playing you for a fool. Besides, you know very well that you can't kill me."

Jacob swallowed hard, the revelation breaking at the wall of his denial. Both men sat in silence, an impasse between then.

"It was you," Jacob said finally. "It was always you."

His brother looked at him quizzically.

"Mother wanted you to look after the island, not me."

Jacob's brother didn't speak; he just continued to stare at Jacob, his expression unreadable.

"But now I'm all that she's got left." Jacob's voice seemed almost to crack. "She had to settle for me after you betrayed her." Jacob took another swig from the bottle, its contents reaching nearly the bottom; he looked back out over the ocean.

"Jacob, why do you believe these crazy things? You don't have to do anything! Neither of us does! We don't owe her anything! Our real mother died at her hands and you would follow her blindly?"

"She said that humans destroy, corrupt, that they're violent," Jacob said. "Yet look at what we have done. We are no better than they are. Does that make us human?"

Jacob's brother didn't have anything to say to that.

"Why is it so easy for you to believe everything that mother has told you?"

"It has never been easy," Jacob said desperately.

"Just let me leave the island, Jacob."

"Even if I wanted to let you go," Jacob said, "I can't."

Jacob's brother looked at him furiously.

"The rule has already been made and I can't change it," Jacob said.

Jacob's brother continued to stare at him, eye twitching, and anger rising from within.

"I don't believe you."

"Mother made it so you can never leave."

"What was all that 'I make the rules now' about then? Still her pawn, I see?" The man shook his head in disgust, looking back towards the ocean. "Nothing has changed."

"Tell me why," Jacob started.

"Why what?" His brother snapped back at him.

"Why do you want to leave the island so badly?"

Jacob's brother shook his head, obviously irritated, but searching for the words he so desperately needed to say.

"Have you ever felt that you were meant for something?"

"No," Jacob replied, truthfully, knowing that he wasn't ever really meant for anything, that it just so happened he got placed where he was now out of sheer desperation and convenience.

"I've always had this feeling Jacob, ever since I was little, I knew…" he trailed off, lost in some silent reverie. "I knew somewhere deep inside that I had a destiny."

"Destiny?" Jacob looked at him skeptically.

"Every year of my life passed by me and that feeling inside of me became stronger and stronger until it was almost unbearable." He looked into the ocean as if he were staring at something far away that he was familiar with.

"Then when our real mother came to me and told me where we really came from, I knew! I just knew so clearly in that instant. I knew everything I had to do, everything I had to accomplish to get back to the place where I came from. Living with the others was only the first step in that process. I have to go back."

Jacob continued to stare out impassively at the blue horizon in front of him.

"What was she like?" Jacob asked quietly.

Jacob's brother stared back at him with a questioning look on his face.

"What was our real mother like?" Jacob clarified.

"She was beautiful," the other man said. "She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Her hair was black, like a raven." He ran his hand through his own peppered hair.

"I see," Jacob said with glossy eyes, watching his brother run his hand through his own hair.

"My _destiny_," Jacob's brother enunciated to him, "lies somewhere out there across the sea." He pointed out towards the frothy white and blue waves. "And it breaks my heart every single day that I have to stay here." His intense gaze bore directly into Jacob. "It destroys me. Absolutely to the core of me it destroys me."

"Oh," Jacob said and then chuckled, his voice mirthless. "Oh," he continued to chuckle, sardonically. His brother's eyes bored into him with rage.

"Destiny," Jacob said laughing and closing his eyes. "I see."

"I fail to see what is so amusing," his brother said.

"You can't leave," Jacob said simply and clearly, looking at his brother in the eyes. "The body of the man who could have left this island is back there in the cave with the body of his dead mother."

The other man's gaze was sharp, his pupils pinpricks in a deep sea of blue. His face became red, veins pulsing in his neck and temples. All the rage and fury of the world seemed to be contained behind his visage.

"Besides," Jacob continued, looking back out at the water. "If I have to stay on this island forever then you are too."

Jacob's brother jumped up from his spot and threw himself on top of Jacob, fingers pressing at Jacob's windpipe. His face was a mirror of rage as he desperately dug his fingers deep into Jacob's neck. Jacob stared back into his brother's eyes, unblinking and passive.

"Then I am going to kill you and find a way to leave," he said determinedly.

Jacob's brother gave up, his breath exhaling sharply from his chest and he released his coiled fingers from Jacob's neck, but stayed on top of Jacob, pinning him to the ground.

"I'm going to find a way," he told Jacob, staring into his eyes.

"Just promise me that you won't turn into that smoke thing in front of me again. That was really unsettling."

Jacob's brother got up from on top of him, hatred burned in his face as he looked one last time at Jacob before taking off down the beach.

Jacob lay in the sand, an empty wine bottle next to his left hand. He picked his hand up from where it lay and placed it upon his chest. His heart was still beating.


End file.
